The rising Chinese, Cheng Kenwen, reached the first final of the WTA tournament, beating the Russian Vornica Kudretova 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), on Saturday in the semi-finals of the Tokyo Games.
The 19-year-old Chinese, who eliminated the Spanish Paula Padusa, first seed of the tournament, will face the Russian Lyudmila Samsonova in the final.
Cheng was ranked outside the top 150 last year, but moved up to 36th after a string of good results.
Samsonova (23 years old) instead qualified for the final by beating the other Chinese Zhang Shuai 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
Samsonova twice winner in the last three tournaments, had eliminated the Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in Tokyo and then holder of two important championships, the Spanish Garbine Mugurosa in the quarter-finals.
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